Terrorist Cells in U.S.?

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Terrorist Cells in U.S.?

The head of U.S. Northern Command seems to be saying that there could be terrorist cells in the U.S., according to an article by the Associated Press. But this is one of those cases where both the headline some newspapers used for the story ("Al-Qaida Cells Forming In U.S., NorthCom Chief Says") and the story seem to be a bit confused, because it's not at all clear whether he means he has intelligence that such cells exist, or simply that in the absence of complete information, we should presume they might exist:

Air Force Gen. Victor “Gene” Renuart said in an interview that “to assume that there are not those cells is naive and so we have to take that threat seriously.” He took over as the head of U.S. Northern Command, whose headquarters is at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, four months ago.

Renuart’s comments came in the wake of a national intelligence report released last week that concluded al-Qaida is using its growing strength in the Middle East to plot attacks on U.S. soil. Other U.S. officials said last week they did not know of al-Qaida cells in the United States.

Renuart said that to counter the growing threat, the military needs to create two more brigade-size units of about 3,500 troops each to be available to respond to nuclear, chemical and biological incidents at home. Currently, there is only one to do so.

He said it will be a year or two before he is able to pull together the military units he needs to better be able to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear disaster in the U.S. The units, he said, will be made up of active-duty personnel, Reserves and National Guard troops. Though the brigades will be split up and deployed to different states, they will train together.

Okay, so we don't know if the cells exist, but we know we need to prepare for them, or at least that seems to be the message.